Independent participatory media for Iran

One day after the attack on Mehdi Karroubi’s home, Iranian parliament reports that the Special Court for the Clergy is considering an order to defrock the opposition leader.

“Karroubi has stood against the regime and the Revolution with defiance, and defrocking is a light punishment for the crimes that have been committed so far,” Taghi Rahbar, the head of parliament’s clerical faction told reporters.

Jafar Shajoni, another hardline cleric, told reporters that Karroubi is not “a true cleric, and his anti-Revolutionary actions have removed him from the clerical circle.”

Following the revival of street protests in Tehran and other major cities, opposition leaders MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have been targeted with fierce pressure from the Islamic Republic establishment.

Rather than prosecute the two leaders in an official court for the accusations of sedition repeatedly flung against them, the government has chosen to pressure the men with house arrests, social isolation, attacks on their family and public disgrace.